{"id":318,"date":"2010-03-08T17:18:25","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T22:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karencasey.wordpress.com\/?p=318"},"modified":"2010-03-08T17:18:25","modified_gmt":"2010-03-08T22:18:25","slug":"being-here-fully-is-the-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womens-spirituality.com\/?p=318","title":{"rendered":"Being here, fully, is the gift. . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

I spent the first four decades of my life mostly living in the past or anticipating the future. \u00a0 I had no awareness that was what I was doing. \u00a0It astounds me, actually, that a person as well educated as I was could be so unaware of the nuances of my life. \u00a0But quite truthfully, I was pretty consistently blind to the moment and the people crossing my path. \u00a0I don’t mean that I didn’t see them but I didn’t allow their presence the opportunity to rise to the level of true awareness. \u00a0I glanced, perhaps listened superficiality to their words, but stayed heavily absorbed in my own drama. \u00a0And drama it was. <\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I read <\/span>Be Here Now by Ram Dass in the mid-seventies and was intrigued, more so on the second reading, not only with the content but with the form he chose to share the content. \u00a0To make sense of the book took concentration because one was sometimes forced to turn it upside down to read the message. \u00a0It was a clever way to convey his philosophy, I thought. \u00a0But the real depth of the message escaped me. \u00a0Being present to only the moment one was experiencing seemed far beyond my grasp. \u00a0And it didn’t seem necessarily appealing to me either. \u00a0I was an organized woman who was very focused on planning for the future. \u00a0I had a responsible job that required me to develop strategic plans, ones that projected 3 to 5 years out. \u00a0Living in this moment only wasn’t conceivable to me. <\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

How I got from that mind-set to where I am now is fascinating to me. \u00a0I hadn’t planned to make this journey. \u00a0It wasn’t part of the dream I had for my life but here I am. \u00a0Cherishing the knowledge that <\/span>no instant but this instant counts. \u00a0Nothing needs to trouble me about the future because when it arrives, I will be able to discern the right interpretation and that will dictate my right response. \u00a0Life is so very simple since having adopted these tools. \u00a0And all it has taken is the willingness to slow down, to really slow down, and believe that every one of us is where we need to be in each tiny instant of time. \u00a0What a marvelous way to see. \u00a0Hallelujah. <\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent the first four decades of my life mostly living in the past or anticipating the future. \u00a0 I had no awareness that was what I was doing. \u00a0It astounds me, actually, that a person as well educated as I was could be so unaware of the nuances of my life. \u00a0But quite truthfully, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karens-musings","tag-be-here-now"],"yoast_head":"\nBeing here, fully, is the gift. . . | Karen Casey<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.womens-spirituality.com\/?p=318\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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